A Promise To Lie
by zTiamaTz
Summary: A stupid actress. A deadly drug. Angelus gets loose. It all comes to a head months later in the Hyperion hotel. Co-authored with Starway Man.


**Title: A Promise To Lie**

Authors: Starway Man & zTiamaTz

Warnings: There are sexual references, bad language and descriptions of character death in this story.

Rating: R-ish

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel the series, along with the characters from their respective shows are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, San dollar, Kuzui, Fox, WB and UPN (as they then were). I own nothing except the plot for this story, and will be making no profit from this work.

Continuity: Initially takes place in Angel season 1, during "Eternity".

Summary: A stupid actress. A deadly drug. Angelus gets loose. It all comes to a head months later in the Hyperion hotel.

**Angel Investigations Headquarters**

**Los Angeles, California - March 2, 2000 **

The ensouled vampire known as Angel was definitely having an off day.

Recently, he and his crew - the former Watcher named Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and the former cheerleader named Cordelia Chase - had encountered a fading Hollywood actress named Rebbecca Lowell. Like most Americans, Rebbecca wanted to be forever young and beautiful, but unfortunately for her she had stumbled onto Angel's secret; that he was a walking corpse, a bloodsucker cursed with a human soul. The foolish woman had no idea what she was letting herself in for after drugging Angel with a substance called Doximall; something that got around the curse by giving him artificial bliss - i.e., a synthetic moment of perfect happiness.

Something that would unleash the inner soulless demon known as Angelus.

"What... what did you do to me?" Angel gasped, as he dropped the packet of blood he was holding in his basement apartment.

"Nothing." Ms. Lowell replied, looking concerned.

"You put something in my drink." Angel suddenly realized, as he bent over in pain.

Rebbecca frowned. "I- I just wanted you to relax a little, Angel. Y'know, lower your defenses a bit."

Angel grabbed her. "What was it?"

"Just a little happy pill," The Lowell woman said in alarm, as Angel dropped his face on her shoulder, panting. "Oh God, it wasn't supposed to be like this! Are you okay? I'm so sorry if I've hurt you..."

"Oh, you haven't hurt me. You've _freed_ me," Angel's voice appeared to contain an odd note of triumph.

"What do you mean-?"

Unfortunately, she soon found out as the drugged Angel lifted his face off her shoulder and buried his fangs in her neck, draining Rebbecca like a milkshake. Her struggles were meaningless; the vampire's inhuman strength could not be overcome, and soon Rebbecca fell to the floor. Nothing but a bloodless corpse.

"Hmmm. Now, should I turn you or not? On the one hand, I am grateful for services rendered. But on the other hand, having you hang around for eternity doesn't exactly appeal - I never could stand the whiny 'poor me' types. Sorry, Becky - guess you missed out on staying young and famous forever! But here's a consolation prize..." Angelus grabbed a nearby knife and began to carve a cross onto her dead cheek. "God, I missed doing this!"

Angelus then grabbed Rebecca's purse and looked through it, finding the bottle of Doximall as well as the name of the supplier of the prescription tranquilizer. "Huh. Okay. One more for the road..." Angelus popped a pill down his throat, further suppressing the soul. Then he grabbed Rebbecca's corpse and left Angel Investigations by the sewer entrance, eventually arriving back just as Wesley and Cordelia arrived upstairs.

"Where the hell is that idiot?" Cordelia demanded, looking afraid - for she and Wes had recently concluded that Rebecca would try to get herself turned after asking a lot of questions regarding vampires the previous night.

"Cordelia, perhaps we're jumping to conclusions," the British man tried to placate her. "After all - Angel knows about all his curse now, and after what happened back in Sunnydale-"

"Wesley, you have never met Angelus, okay? I have. Trust me - there is no such thing as being overly paranoid when it comes to _that_ vampire!" Cordelia said crossly. "And if that Lowell woman somehow manages to pull a Buffy to get herself turned, I am heading out of the state straightaway - and if you've got any brains, so will you!"

"What's all the noise up here?" The 250-year-old undead Irishman did his best 'Angel' imitation as he came out of the elevator.

"Angel? Is that you?" Cordelia asked nervously, trying to discern whether this was her ensouled boss, or a soulless nightmare.

"No, it's Lorne Green in disguise. Of course it's me." 'Angel' said in annoyance. "Cordy, what's the matter with you?"

Wesley exhaled in relief, buying the act. "We were, ah, rather worried about that actress, Rebbecca Lowell." He said, as Angelus came closer.

"She's gone," 'Angel' shrugged. "I told her to take a hike after she said she wanted to become a vampire."

"Ah, good. You see, Cordelia thought-"

"Hey, it wasn't just _me_, pal!" Cordy made a big mistake and took her eyes off the vampire, starting to glare at Wesley.

That was all Angelus needed to dart forward and slam his fist straight between her eyes, knocking Cordelia unconscious onto the floor. Blink, and you'd miss it.

"What the-?" was all that Wesley had time to say, before Angelus slammed him up against the wall and started to feed.

Like Rebbecca before him, Wesley's mortal strength was no match for the vampire's superhuman one. Angelus drained him almost to the last drop, and then used a claw to open up a vein on his wrist.

Unable to resist, Wesley automatically swallowed the blood as the blackness claimed him completely, and his soul quickly fled his body.

**Angel's Bedroom**

**A Few Hours Later**

Cordelia came to slowly, groggily, not sure what was going on - until all the memories came back, and the 19-year-old girl knew that she was in deep shit when she discovered her arms and legs were tied to the bed.

"Wakey-wakey there, Cordy!" Angel's voice said cheerfully, as Cordelia forced her eyes open. "I'm glad to see you're still functional. I was kind of afraid I'd used a bit too much force, that you were going to wake up in a coma. Hey - isn't that what you said to Giles, that one time? I seem to recall him saying something about that, anyway."

"Where's Wesley?" Cordy demanded, if there was any hope of rescue anymore it lay with the Englishman in question.

"Sleeping," Angelus said with a grin as he popped another pill of Doximall into his mouth. "This stuff is far out, I gotta tell you. Not as good as boffing Buffy, but as a stop-gap measure the Doximall sure works to keep Soul Boy buried deep down, where he can't interfere!"

"What did you mean by _sleeping_?" Cordelia asked as the villain finished explaining about the tranquilizer drug he'd discovered.

"What do you think I mean, sugar tits?" Angelus smirked. "You know, for old time's sake I'm tempted to let Wesley be the one to turn you once he wakes up. I mean hey, I haven't forgotten how you led poor old Wes along by his dick back in high school, while giving him nothing in return - not even a _sympathy bone_! Were you really _that_ much of a bitch back then? Or were you just trying to make someone jealous - like say, your ex-boyfriend Xander?"

"You leave that guy out of this." Cordelia growled angrily, unable to help herself.

Of course, that was like waving a red flag to an angry bull as far as Angelus was concerned. He laughed, "When I went back to Sunnydale, last Thanksgiving? I actually met the girl Xander replaced you with, believe it or not. That ex-demon woman, Anya - you remember her? Well, anyway, I swear to you I could smell Xander all over her. It was obvious they'd been screwing each other six ways from Sunday! Hmm, you ever wonder if maybe, _just maybe_, that's why Harris decided to cheat on you with Willow? My opinion, all you had to do was spread your legs wide open for that clown and you could have kept him faithful to you, hell - odds are you wouldn't even be here right now! Irony - don't ya love it?" Angelus finished up with an evil smirk.

"If you're going to kill me, could you just get it over with? The feeble banter part of this conversation is really starting to blow," Cordy said icily, not letting the evil vampire see how badly his words had affected her. Unfortunately, she had often wondered the same thing herself last year, after catching Willow and Xander going at it in Spike's basement and getting impaled by that damned rebar.

To her horror, though, Angelus started removing his clothes. "What are you doing?" Cordy yelped, her eyes impossibly wide. "Hey, don't even _think_ it, you asshole-!"

"I'm curious to see if you're good enough to give me what Buffy did way back when," Angelus smirked as he took off his socks and shoes. "I mean, there was a time this was exactly what you wanted, remember?"

"Get off me, you bastard!" Cordelia screamed, struggling as the smiling, naked Angelus draped himself on top of her. "You should know how this is pointless! You think that something like this is going to make Angel happy? Yeah, right! Goes to show what an undead retard you really are! And if you think I'm going to cooperate and just let you violate me like this, you're out of your fucking mind!"

"Now I'm getting bored. Even more bored than I was the other night in that theater - _say_, did it ever once cross your teeny little mind that the reason your acting sucks so much, is that you're a complete airhead? Still - the motor-mouth thing is something I'm going to cure you of, after you wake up," Angelus smirked, before going into vamp face and biting down on Cordy's soft, tender neck.

Upstairs, there was no one alive to hear the faint female scream wafting up from the basement below.

**Hyperion Hotel**

**Los Angeles, California - September 2, 2000**

So much had changed ever since last spring, it was hard to know even where to begin.

After Wesley and Cordelia had woken up as the newest members of the undead club, they, along with Angelus, had gone on a killing spree across Los Angeles. The LA branch of the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart had been their first target, with over 90% of the lawyers getting slaughtered in a horrifying blitzkrieg attack. Angelus, Cordelia, Wesley, and their minions had been utterly merciless, and the few remaining survivors of Evil Inc. had been forbidden to exact revenge by the Senior Partners - who knew that the vampire with a soul was prophesised to play a major role in the final apocalypse, and the Wolf, Ram and Hart wanted the former Champion as dark as possible in order to be on their side of the sidelines when the time came.

But nothing lasts forever, and soon enough there had been a split in the ranks; these days, Wesley and Cordy were no longer content to merely be Angelus' children. Especially not Ms. Chase, whose alpha female personality made her believe that she had been born to be no ones servant - alive or undead. Wesley had felt likewise, and so had accompanied Cordelia when she went back to Sunnydale.

The carnage they'd wrought had to be seen to be believed, coming off the back of that debacle with the black ops military unit called the Initiative. Buffy Summers, her boyfriend Riley Finn, her mother Joyce, her Watcher Rupert Giles, Willow Rosenberg, her girlfriend Tara Maclay, Anya Jenkins, the vampires Spike and Harmony - all dead. Still, they'd gotten off fairly easy - a quick, relatively painless death or staking for everyone involved.

Xander Harris on the other hand, had been horribly tortured for days - screaming in unbearable agony the whole time - by the female demon inhabiting Cordelia's corpse, before his soul had finally known the sweet release of death.

But eventually Cordelia had returned to the City of Angels, and with a male companion she now made her way into this hotel that had been restocked with the undead as both guests and management. They made their way through the hotel without so much as a pat-down, oddly enough. Considering how much of a big shot the guy running the Hyperion was these days, they'd expected he'd have much better security. Sweet-talking their way up to the floor below the penthouse had been relatively easy; even easier, was incapacitating the elevator guard and stealing his key.

With the male vampire accompanying her, Cordelia knew there would be no trouble. Even where there was trouble, the simpletons in her path were no match for her. They never even got the chance to start something. Finally, they made it to their destination; the security room, where video feed from every camera in the hotel could be viewed.

Those leading up to the penthouse suite however, were having 'technical' difficulties, courtesy of a vampire's head being jammed into the breaker box. _Too easy_.

After the door was kicked open, a minion vamp at the monitor console stood up in surprise. "What the fu-"

The rest of her question was cut off, as she was shot with an X26 Taser. As the female vampire minion continued to shake violently on the floor, she was staked; casually, almost as an after-thought.

"We wouldn't have to go through all of this effort if you'd just wait until it was done," Cordelia sniped in annoyance. She already knew what her companion's answer was going to be, but she at least had to say her peace.

"Shut up," he growled at her, right on cue.

The Cordelia vampire gave her partner-in-crime an annoyed look as she added a new cartridge into the taser, before returning it to her purse. "Why _are_ you here, anyway?"

"I want that selfish little bastard to know _exactly_ who wanted him dust!"

"Fine!" She shook her head as she sat down in the vacated chair. Cordelia quickly went over all the monitors, making sure they would serve the purpose she had in mind. Soon after, she turned toward her partner. "It's all set, just look at those monitors over there. You'll get to see everything live, as it happens."

"Good," the mystery man told her as he grabbed her chin, pulling her to her feet. "I want this finished by tonight. Now do what I told you, and don't dawdle."

Cordelia pull her head back, trying to free herself from his grip, then grimaced when he tightened it in response.

The dark-haired male vampire gave her a smirk. "Just remember who's in charge, sweetheart." He roughly shoved her toward the door they'd entered, finally releasing her. "Now go."

**A Penthouse Suite**

**A Few Minutes Later**

Cordelia entered the penthouse apartment wearing a smart little black dress, the designer purse slung casually over her shoulder. Still rubbing her jaw, she made her way around the main room, gazing at everything with a critical eye.

He was suddenly there, behind her. "Look at you, the prettiest woman in Los Angeles," he whispered in her ear.

She whipped around to face him. "Well, of course I am!" Cordelia replied with a glare.

"Cordelia, please," the owner of the Hyperion held up his hands in mock surrender. "What's with the hostility?"

"I don't know, Wesley, maybe it has something to do with that blonde skank that you had sitting on your lap for the last two hours?" She shoved him backwards, causing him to fall onto one of his black leather couches.

Wesley looked up at her with a grin. "I didn't know you were the jealous type, especially where Kate Lockley is concerned," he said, referring to a former police officer and occasional ally of Angel Investigations, whom Wesley had turned recently.

"I'm not. It's just when a Chase decides she wants something, she gets it!" Cordelia said firmly. "Just like you did, when you decided to set up shop here in Angel's old hotel - just to piss him off completely."

"Ah yes, dear Angelus - our sire. What's the latest concerning you and him? I've heard on the grapevine that he was in quite the simmering rage after learning that you had killed Miss Summers before he could."

"Buffy? Oh _please_, he'll get over that bottle-blonde menace in no time. In a century or so, Angelus won't even remember her name." Cordelia said dismissively. She turned around, pretending to search the penthouse for something before coming back to face Wesley. "As for the rest of it, that thing about 'me and him'? I only see you here right now. So, piece of advice - don't bring his name up again."

"That's nice to know," Wesley snorted, before stepping back, and making his way to a nearby liquor cabinet. "Drink?"

"No." She crossed her arms over her chest, annoyed.

"Suit yourself," Wesley told Cordelia with a shrug. "And spare me the attitude, will you? I'm the big brother around here, after all."

"By less than five minutes!" The Cordelia vampire stalked over to him, full game face showing. As he turned back towards her, she swung her hand to slap his face. But the Wesley vampire caught it easily, inches away from making contact.

He downed his blood-laced Scotch with the other hand, before casually placing the glass back on the cabinet. "You want to play rough, sister dear?" Wyndam-Pryce asked, as he turned toward her in game face. He then grabbed Cordy by the throat, and slammed her against the wall. "I'm game if you are."

"_Good_. I like it rough," Cordelia purred softly as she leaned forward, running her tongue over the tip of his nose.

"Then why didn't you say so to begin with?" Wes asked with faux innocence, as both their faces turned human.

He brought his face to hers, initiating a steamy kiss. After releasing her wrist, he ran his hand up her right thigh, bringing the already short dress higher and higher.

Cordelia broke off, revealing a spot of blood on her lip. "Let's take this somewhere else."

"I've got just the place, my dear girl."

Following him into his bedroom, Cordy couldn't help but admire the bed that dominated the room, before placing her bag at the foot of it.

Wes couldn't help but notice her interest. "It's European white oak, you couldn't break it with a sledgehammer," He bragged. "I had it imported, special delivery."

Wes then openly leered, as Cordy pulled off her heels, and dropped her dress to the floor. "My, but you do make that bed look inviting," Wes drawled. The appearance of Cordy's black lace bra and panties stopped any further comments from leaving his lips, though.

"Really?" Cordelia crawled onto his bed, giving her ass a little wiggle. She looked over her shoulder at him. "You want to test out that unbreakable theory?"

Wesley tore off his shirt and took in the sight of her, spread out on his bed. As Angelus had once stated, this was everything he had ever wanted as a mortal during one point in time. "What have you got in mind?" Wes asked with obvious interest.

Cordelia turned to face him and smiled, patting the spot next to her. As he climbed in next to her, Wesley reached out to cup her breast. Instead, Cordelia put a hand up to stop him.

"I thought we were going to play _rough_?" She asked, as the vampiress reached over and grabbed her purse.

Wesley joined her at the foot of the bed, eager to see what she had in mind. He wasn't disappointed, as Cordy pulled out two very sturdy-looking pairs of fur-lined handcuffs.

Letting the bag drop to the floor, she dangled them in front of his face, letting Wes get a good look at what she had in mind.

"You want me to-" Pryce was cut off, when his undead 'sister' pressed a finger to his lips.

"No," Cordelia put her hands on his chest and shoved him backwards. "_I_ want to." She followed this up by shoving him backwards, and quickly straddling him. Before Wes knew what hit him, she'd taken each wrist and cuffed him to the headboard.

Satisfied that he wouldn't be able to escape thanks to the enchanted handcuffs, Cordy crawled off the bed, knocking her purse to the floor in the process. Moving over to his closet, she took a few seconds to study his wardrobe, before she selected a black tie from Wesley's rack.

Bringing it back over, she wrapped it around his head and over his eyes. Taking Wesley's face in her hands, Cordelia kissed his lips lightly before pulling away. "I'll be _right_ back," she whispered seductively.

**Corridor Outside Suite**

**A Few Seconds Later**

Angelus walked towards his destination, with a satisfied look on his face. He arrived just in time, as Cordelia opened the door. "Did you enjoy the show?" she asked coyly.

"The cameras got it from every angle," he said with a smirk. "I couldn't decide which monitor I should keep my eyes on." He grabbed her ass roughly with both hands, pulling her up until they were face to face. He then jammed his tongue down Cordelia's throat.

After breaking the kiss, he roughly dropped her back down to the floor. "I'm going to have to fuck his stink off of you," Angelus semi-snarled, as he looked down at her.

"Mmm...sounds like fun," the Cordelia vampire smiled as she put a hand on his chest. "But first, business." She took him by the hand, and led him toward the bedroom.

"Where were you?" Wesley demanded, as he heard Cordelia re-enter the room.

She left her sire in the doorway, and pulled the blindfold from the Wesley vampire's eyes.

He gave her a puzzled look, before noticing the new vampire in the doorway.

"Angelus, what the _fuck_ are you doing here?" The anger was clear on Vamp Wesley's face, as well as a hint of fear.

"What?" The older vampire asked with a sneer, as he walked into the room. "You actually thought she'd leave me for you, boy?" Angelus held out his arm for his younger childe to come join him.

Cordelia took it, and he pulled her roughly into a searing kiss. He took his eyes off of her to gloat at the jealousy on Wesley's face. Angelus said, "You disappoint me, Wes. I made her, remember?"

As they released each other, Cordelia dipped down, as if to further the bound vampire's humiliation.

Angelus looked down with a smirk, expecting to see her tugging at his zipper. Instead, Cordelia's hand was in her nearby purse.

She looked up at him, eyes blazing. "Surprise!" The Cordelia vampire pulled out the small taser from earlier, and shot him in the groin. Angelus screamed as the electrodes entered his genitals, and the thousands of volts blasted through his body.

As he collapsed to his knees, Cordelia quickly stood up, and wrapped the still-electrified wires around Angelus' neck, soon rendering him unconscious.

"Nice job, sweetheart," Wesley told her with an evil smirk.

**Penthouse Suite**

**A Few Seconds Later**

Cordelia released Wesley from the handcuffs, and he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before jumping off the bed. Grabbing Angelus, Wes threw him over the bar of the foot board.

Cordelia roughly placed her sire's chin on the bar, before taking each of his wrists and handcuffing them to the furthest possible posts on each side.

Shortly after, Wesley reappeared shortly after with a bucket and a smile. "Are we ready?"

Cordy nodded. "He's not going anywhere."

Wesley then proceeded to dump the bucket of water over Angelus' head. They didn't have to wait long for results.

Angelus opened his eyes and saw the empty bed. He attempted to get up, but could only shift his legs from side to side on his knees.

"What the fuck is going on?" the centuries-old vampire growled, whipping his head around from side to side.

Cordelia and Wesley made their way around his shackled body, one on each side. They stretched out on the bed in front of him, their bare feet practically in his face.

"I've got one word for you, Angelus. Acathla," Cordelia stated simply.

He sneered at her. "What, you've gotten scared of him all of a sudden?"

"No, you moron. What I've got are Prada bags, Jimmy Choo shoes, and a line on dresses right off the Paris runway." She couldn't help but give Wesley another kiss for _that_ one.

She then whacked her sire in the face with her foot, drawing blood from the corner of his mouth. "What I _don't need_, is to be on the bottom of the food chain if - one day, sooner or later - you decide to try bringing about another Hell on Earth. I mean, _me_ ever ending up some pure demon's bitch? I don't _think_ so."

"You ungrateful slut!" Angelus spat at her. "I'm your sire! You don't do things like this to your sire!"

"Like you never killed your sire for Miss Summers?" Wesley asked archly.

"That wasn't me, that was _Angel_!" Angelus screamed, feeling hoist by his own petard.

"Who cares? You're a liability, Angelus, one that _we_ don't need." Cordy let that sink in with a smile. "The next generation has to come into power eventually, and my God, these days who needs a vampire that can't even use a damn cell phone? You're that stuck in the past, you're history. In more ways than one!"

Angelus went into game face, cursing himself for ever turning these two, and struggling desperately to pull himself free. But even with all his strength, he still had zero leverage.

"What was it you said, the night Angel went bye-bye thanks to that idiot Rebbecca Lowell?" Cordelia kicked him in the face to jog his memory. "Oh that's right, you told me how much my acting _sucked_..."

"You whore," He sneered. "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

"You already did that months ago, remember?" Cordelia sneered right back.

"That's nothing, I'm going to make what Billy-boy does with his spikes look like a pleasant daydream in comparison to what I'll do to you!"

"Posturing much? For God's sake, _Daddy_, Wes and I have been playing you for months. Or did you think I set all this up yesterday, on some sort of whim? No, I can see you don't. So I guess you don't think my acting sucks now, huh?" Cordy pulled a stake from behind her pillow and handed it off to Wesley.

Wesley smirked at Angelus as he got up and walked behind him. From the sudden look on his face, it had finally dawned on Angelus that he was in real trouble. "Cordelia, you can't do this to me!"

"Can't I? I saw how you treated Spike and Drusilla back in Sunnydale. Xander told me what you did to Darla too, after we started dating way back when. Hell, you even fed off Buffy in order to save your own ass when the chips were down! Soul or otherwise, the only person you care about is _yourself_ - you bastard," Cordelia growled, her vamp face appearing.

"You don't like me anymore, fine, let the Doximall run out and I'll deal with being Soul Boy again!" Angelus pleaded desperately.

"Pfft, as if!" She gave him a look of disgust. "Like I'm going to let him run around either! Not only is Angel a complete wimp, like Wes said - he staked his own fucking sire. Plus he'd try to stake me and Wes on general principles. Newsflash - neither one of you are _ever_ getting the chance to come after us!"

Angelus literally screamed in rage. "I'm not going back there!" Straining against the cuffs, the bed creaked, but held.

"Awww, is whiddle Angelus afwaid of hell? You've already got a hundred years of experience there already, I'm sure you'll do just fine as some demon's new man-bitch..." The Cordelia vampire sing-songed.

She simply turned her attention to Wesley. "Go ahead, do it."

He nodded, he'd been waiting for this moment ever since that day at Angel Investigations months ago. "Goodbye, Angelus. As a former Watcher, I must admit - I'm going to enjoy recording this moment for posterity."

"What he said. Bye-bye," Cordelia said sweetly, scrunching her toes at her sire several times. She then watched, as the stake slammed home and the _currently_ most feared vampire on the planet exploded into dust before her.

Wesley tossed the stake to the floor, and stared at his undead 'sister'. "Well, that's done at last. So, what do you want to do now?"

Cordelia locked her golden eyes with his. "Why don't you help me with my daddy issues, brother dear?" she asked, as the dark-haired woman grabbed him and yanked him down on top of her.

It could not be denied that Wesley had been waiting months for this moment as well. Ever since he and Cordelia had woken up as soulless demons, he had been consumed by his lust for her; so much so, that the sire-childe bond had failed to make him loyal to Angelus. The play-acting finally over, he started tearing off his trousers. Grunting like an animal, the Wesley vampire was focused on only one thing...

Which explained why he failed to notice another vampire enter the room, and slam Cordelia's stake into his own back.

"It's about _time_ you got here!" Vamp Cordelia snapped to her minion as she fastidiously brushed the dust that had been Wesley away, before getting off the bed and adjusting her bra and panties.

"I'm sorry, mistress," the male vampire that used to be Xander Harris said submissively, his eyes facing the floor. "I thought to wait until he was completely distracted..."

Cordelia snorted, staring at her own childe - who had been psychologically broken much in the same way Angelus had broken Drusilla, before she had finally sired Xander that night in Sunnydale. The student had truly surpassed the master, in more than one sense. "Who told you to think? I do the thinking around here, Xander. And don't you forget it!" She snarled.

"Yes, mistress," Harris nodded, afraid of what Cordelia Chase might do to him if she got really mad.

"Well, good," Cordelia finally lost the scowl, as the dominant vampiress started making plans on how to unite Wesley's and Angelus' forces under her own banner with the minimum fuss necessary. "Now get over here, doofus, and start taking care of your sire's needs!"

**00000**

**==A Higher Plane==**

**A While Later**

The dark-haired woman dressed in white looked down at the scene of undead fornication with utter disgust. "_Unbelievable..._"

While the demon infesting the Cordelia Chase of that particular universe would eventually become the Master vampire of Los Angeles, and rule with an undead Xander Harris at her side, it didn't really matter. Soon enough, they'd both be dusted by the vampire Slayer named Faith. The newly freed guardian of the Key named Donna Lehane.

"_If only you knew,_" She mused to herself concerning her vampire counterpart. "_If only you knew how easy it would be to engineer the circumstances where both you and your Xander would be cursed with a soul. But why should I do that? Soon enough you'll both be dust, and good riddance to you. And there's no point in torturing both her and that stupid, lovable dork-head that way. Their souls will finally be able to rest in peace, once you and your chosen consort are in Hell where you belong..._"

With a sad shake of her head, the bright lady turned her attention to those in other universes whom she could still help.

**00000**

**END**


End file.
